Members of the Broadband Committee and Selectboard participate in a detailed planning meeting and on-site review of town specific design issues with representatives from Westfield Gas & Electric (WG&E) and Precision Valley Communications (PVC). WG&E is the company New Salem has contracted with to design and build our fiber network. They are employing PVC to do the field engineering, which is mapping distance and showing how to feed fiber to each dwelling.

September 22nd

Members of the Broadband Committee attend a conference on MLP Management in Heath with presentations by KP Law (New Salem town counsel), MAIA (Town Government Insurance), Attorney Deidre Lawrence (specialist in MLP legal issues) and Goulet, Salvidio & Assoc. (MLP accounting firm).

Broadband Committee begins bi-weekly phone conferences with WG&E. All aspects of the project are discussed with current focus on mapping, design and preliminary build considerations.

December

The State announces the availability of additional funding for towns building their own networks. These monies will be dispersed through a grant process to towns that have construction costs that exceed the original MBI estimates for their network builds.

December 6th

Broadband Committee members, Cam Dunbar and WG&E Engineers conduct on-site walk-out of locations that will require new pole sets in order to tie all sections of New Salem into the town fiber network.